Wind Power News: July 2010

These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.

A company planning to build a series of wind turbines across the high altitude farmland in northern Potter County says there may be fewer of the machines than originally planned. Regardless of how many turbines are in the project, citizens who testified at a public hearing on the AES Corporation proposal on July 15 were overwhelmingly opposed to it. An overflowing crowd turned out at the Ulysses Township Board of Supervisors meeting to comment on the Fox Hill Wind Energy . . .Complete story »

NORTH SMITHFIELD – Town Administrator Paulette Hamilton is admitting this week that she pretended to be 15 different people commenting on an online Valley Breeze story last week about a proposed wind turbine in effort to advance a positive conversation about the idea. The Breeze discovered her personal e-mail address was used during a routine review of comments. In a frank discussion with the town administrator Friday morning, Hamilton freely admitted she took on nickname after nickname – “Quincy” to . . .Complete story »

Save Our Seashore is a group of Wellfleet residents and nonresident taxpayers who fought to convince the town of Wellfleet to reconsider its plan to install a 410-foot industrial wind turbine in the heart of the National Seashore. On March 30, the Wellfleet Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to abandon the project. Two weeks ago, I joined approximately 50 people from all over the state of Massachusetts who had gathered together in an attempt to convince members of the Massachusetts . . .Complete story »

With the re-adoption this week of the current version of the Waitsfield Town Plan, fears of a massive array of 500 wind towers on the Northfield Ridge can be laid to rest – for now. Under Vermont law, towns must update their Town Plans every five years, but towns have the option of re-adopting the old version while planners and planning consultants rewrite and revise plans. That is where Waitsfield is at – the planning commission and its consultant, with . . .Complete story »

Massachusetts lawmakers—who aren’t generally regarded as models of efficiency—have passed a bill that could streamline the plodding bureaucracy of wind farm permitting. The Wind Energy Siting Reform Act, which is backed by Gov. Deval Patrick and several environmental groups, earned Senate approval in February and passed in the House two weeks ago. The act fast-tracks the development of wind power facilities, limiting the local approval process to 120 days before proposals are sent to the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board . . .Complete story »

In recent months as I have studied the economic and ecological impacts of mountaintop industrial wind, I have been amazed at the distortions and misrepresentations of the wind developers. As an environmentalist, I have for decades supported a move away from our addiction to oil to more eco-friendly renewable energy, including wind. However, when I hear the developers spin the tragic gulf oil spill to justify their desire to use our tax dollars to destroy Maine mountaintops with as many . . .Complete story »

Massachusetts is pushing ahead with an ambitious green agenda, but there has been remarkably little debate about the its scope or what might undermine it The south shore community of Milton is planning to borrow $6 million to build a large wind turbine on town land. Normally, a project of that magnitude in such a small town would be studied endlessly, but it whisked through town meeting in less than an hour because it’s such a no-brainer. Town officials expect . . .Complete story »

We looked at the following news with complete and utter disbelief. 27 July 2010: Department of Energy and Climate Change in UK: • DECC has announced on 27 July that it will fund a new, independent analysis of matters arising in the consideration of noise impacts in the determination of wind farm planning applications in England. The contract for carrying out the work has been awarded to Hayes McKenzie Partnership, following a standard competitive tendering process. • The project will . . .Complete story »

The elegant, lazy motion of wind turbines once appealed to Eleanor Tillinghast. Generating energy takes a heavy toll on the natural world, so it stood to reason that Tillinghast, a committed environmentalist, once thought wind farms were a good thing, even though she knew little about them. The Hoosac Wind project, the 20-turbine wind farm proposed for the tiny hill towns of Florida and Monroe in the Berkshires, changed her mind. After careful study, Tillinghast concluded the environmental cost of . . .Complete story »

The seasons have changed four times since construction began on Virginia’s first wind farm, and there’s still no sign of the 400-foot windmills planned for the top of a Highland County ridge. Developers of the project – who previously blamed winter weather for the slow progress – last week declined to say why they have missed their goal of having the first of 19 turbines erected by midsummer. The lull comes at a time when the national wind industry, which had been . . .Complete story »